


A Broken Heart The World Forgot

by turntechRavager



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Angst, Gen, Stream of Consciousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-09-02 03:11:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8649319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turntechRavager/pseuds/turntechRavager
Summary: But now when he comes home to that empty house, not a single voicemail from his father, unsent letters to his deceased baby sister laying on the table, there's nothing. No darkness, no shadows any longer. Just a sense of emptiness consuming everything. In the end, the light can't live without the darkness. The balance is broken, the boy's soul feeling as though it's been torn in half. He's left with only the light, only the endless nothing.





	

At first, there's no sound. Not even the birds in the trees can be heard as the scene flickers to a near empty graveyard. The boy standing in front of a grave can't be more than seven or eight years old, the man next to him looks almost nothing like him. Father... Should that word even be used? The man has his hand on the boy's head but refuses to look at him. Can't look at him, the child who looks so much like the woman and younger child buried in the earth.  
  
The seasons pass by, snow and sun come and go and still, the boy stands there. As he grows, the man is no longer there beside him. Gone, unable to handle it any longer. Confident his son, even only at fourteen, can fend for himself. More days pass and the boy is by the grave less and less. Sitting at home, glancing briefly at the phone on birthdays, staring out the window at Christmas with a small smile on his face despite the empty house with its lights dimmed down. But in the darkness, there's a light. A small glinting of gold laying deceptively innocently against his chest. And everything changes.  
  
The grave is forgotten, the calls dreaded instead of idly hoped for. The boy is staring out into the snow, but his reflection is suddenly staring back at him. However, what he sees isn't who he is, _can't_ be him. Eyes sharper, full of confidence and something so much darker, almost frightening. He stares in confusion and horror, the image stares back at him with a ( _fanged_?) smirk. A cold laugh cuts through the silent air as the reflection reaches out to grab him, the glass shattering all around him, cutting and sticking into his skin. Ryou screams, but no sound comes out as the floor seems to disappear under them, melt into the darkness. There's no sound but that laughter as him and his reflection fall into the seemingly endless abyss of shadows.  
  
All around him people disappear, his friends go missing. Anyone who picks on him gone. Gaps in his memory, both short and long. He wakes up in a dark alley with no memory of how he got there, or even behind the school with a teacher in a coma next to him. None of them ever wake up, never open their eyes again. Accusative stares. No proof, but he's blamed. He's a freak, no one wants to risk it. School after school, an almost endless cycle that always goes the same way. Until there's another light, another bit of gold on another boy at his new school. And things get worse.  
  
More frequent blackouts, but this time he knows. His reflection, the dark side. He doesn't know what to call him, this presence that makes itself known. Calls him 'landlord' and claims to have done that to his friends by _his_ wishes. His simple wish to play with his friends forever, twisted and _granted_. Their souls locked away in his playing dolls. It's too much, not what he wanted. For once in his life, he tries to stand up for himself. Tries to take control, to stop this darkness from thing to kill his friends, his _only_ friends. What little he does helps, they fight off the darkness and he awakens as himself once more thanks to his friends.  
  
Friends? Who says they are? The more he watches them from a distance, rarely ever included in their little adventures or games or conversations, that lingering feeling of being left behind is there. It stings. But _he's_ still there, that constant presence resting in his mind, in his soul. Mocking, sneering, telling him things he knows isn't true. But... Maybe. Just _maybe_... He does have a point in one thing. Can people like that really be called friends?  
  
He continues to help when he can, _if_ he can. But his efforts are less and less, he gives in more and more. The darkness, the shadows... They become a bit of a comfort. When he blacks out, he's no longer afraid. When he wakes up in an unfamiliar location, he's no longer confused. He accepts it, lets it wrap around him and consume him. He barely cares.  
  
And then there's the pain, the searing pain he can feel even locked away in the shadows of his own mind. Blood... He's losing so much blood and he's put back in his body, a boy he doesn't know supporting him. Why? What had happened? The darker boy had never hurt him without reason, said he needed him still for his body. So why now? It's all a blur, he sleeps in his own body and has to deal with the horrible pain. Until finally, the shadows consume him and push him away into his own mind once more. He doesn't fight it, welcomes the painless rest while his body is taken over.  
  
But again, the pain comes. This time, in the middle of a duel. Hurting his friends again... But did it matter this time? He was willingly handed over and for what? He didn't understand what was going on, the large red dragon in front of him breathing down on him, so much more than a simple hologram. A Shadow Game, the monsters and the dark red sky around them covered with mouths and eyes all real. His body is screaming at him in pain, on his knees and trying to stop the blood. But then, almost a jerking feeling, he's pulled back. For a moment, he can see his own body. He's kneeling behind it, and there his darkness is, standing in front of him with his arms spread out. For those few seconds, it almost looks like a protective stance to shield him, but it _can't_ be...  
  
And the dark boy demands to be attacked, _giving up the duel_. Sacrificing a chance at winning, probably his _only_ chance at winning, because the darker boy didn't want to risk losing him? Because he still needed him as a tool of course... But still... For that instant, he can't help but feel grateful as he slips back into the shadows of his ( _their?_ ) mind.  
  
So much happens, things come and go all in a blur. And through it all, the darker boy is quiet. _Too_ quiet. The insults are still there, that constant condescending voice that's always in the back of his mind no matter what he does, always trying to put him down and find some sort of flaw with him. And then, it all hits the fan at once. So many things happen, but he's locked away, even tighter than before.  
  
When he awakes this time, the darker boy is gone. The emptiness is strange, his mind and body his once again. Time passes, the other spirit fades on. His friends... The ones he had thought were considered as such... They're never there for him. They go on and on about friendship and how important it is, but he's never included. He was _never_ truly included in their little group. The outsider. The one who was to be kept a close eye on in case his dark side got out of control.  
  
The darker boy had been right. They didn't need him, didn't want him. They felt _pity_ for him, wanted to _help_ him. Ryou can't help it, he's filled with anger and a bit of betrayal. They didn't care, and yet they took _him_ away from him for the good of the world, for the sake of the Pharaoh reaching his final resting place.  
  
But what did they know? He was learning, able to take care of himself. But now when he came home to that empty house, not a single voicemail from his father, unsent letters to his deceased baby sister laying on the table. There's nothing. No darkness, no shadows any longer. Just a sense of emptiness consuming everything. In the end, the light can't live without the darkness. The balance is broken, the boy's soul feeling as though it's been torn in half. He's left with only the light, only the endless _nothing_.  
  
And once again, Ryou screams. But this time, his scream isn't one of fear. Frustration, loneliness, hatred, regrets... So many regrets of things unsaid, things he could have done better... This time, his scream is the _only_ thing heard.

 

\--

 

Under the covers, Ryou wakes up from a dream he's all too familiar with, shivering. He curls in on himself, his body shaking from the force of trying to hold back his tears. 


End file.
